Real-Time Balance On a Mobile Phone

ABSTRACT

A system, method and prepaid payment mobile phone configured to display a current prepaid balance. The prepaid payment mobile phone receives a debit balance request from input on the mobile phone. After retrieving an encoded current balance, the mobile phone displays the amount. The current balance may be calculated by the phone after a transaction, or the phone may receive a debit balance via a short message service notification.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

Aspects of the present invention relate in general to financialservices. Aspects include a prepaid payment mobile phone apparatus,system, method and computer-readable medium configured to display areal-time prepaid payment balance. Further aspects of the inventioninclude a method of storing and displaying a real-time prepaid paymentbalance on a mobile phone.

2. Description of the Related Art

The traditional paper “gift-certificate” is gradually being replaced byprepaid payment mobile phones—debit-account mobile phones with a setlimited value associated with a Primary Account Number (PAN). Somemobile phone debit accounts are affiliated with a particular vendor,such as a department store, supermarket or restaurant; yet other mobilephone debit accounts are affiliated with an acquirer, payment processor,or other issuer.

When a mobile phone customer makes a purchase, the prepaid paymentmobile phone may be used to pay for the transaction. If the purchaseamount equals or exceeds the value of the prepaid payment mobile phone,the customer simply pays the excess amount using cash, credit card,debit card, or other financial instrument accepted by the vendor.However, when the purchase amount is less than the value of the prepaidpayment mobile phone account, the purchase price is simply subtractedfrom the prepaid payment mobile phone account balance, and a new balanceremains associated with the mobile phone.

Mobile phone customers who carry prepaid payment mobile phones are oftenunaware of the debit balance of a prepaid payment mobile phone,especially on non-reloadable mobile phone products. While some issuerand acquirers mandate support for balance inquiries for some gift mobilephones and incentive mobile phones, such support is optional atmerchants.

When issuers fail to support these enhancements, or when merchants donot support them, mobile phone customers are restricted to spending theamount that is available on the mobile phone within one transactionoften without knowing the balance in advance.

When issuers, acquirers, and processors do not support theseenhancements at the point-of-sale, the consumer is inconvenienced, andthe process breaks down. Consumer frustration is common, resulting inhigher amounts of breakage (resulting in unrecognized sales volume), andalternate forms of payment being used. Worse, consumers are discouragedfrom purchasing more prepaid payment mobile phones.

In the re-loadable prepaid mobile phone category, the only way aconsumer can determine their balance on a mobile phone is by callingtheir mobile phone issuer/third party agent or looking up theinformation online.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the invention include a system, method and prepaidpayment mobile phone configured to display a current debit balance. Aremarkable aspect of the invention is that a prepaid balance retrievedfrom an issuer and stored at the prepaid payment mobile phone, asgenerally no such information is ever stored on such phones. The prepaidpayment mobile phone receives a balance request from a button on themobile phone. After retrieving the current balance encoded within, themobile phone displays the current balance. The balance may be calculatedafter a payment transaction or received as a message from an acquirer,payment network, or issuer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-B illustrate an embodiment of a prepaid payment mobile phoneconfigured to display the current balance.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system embodiment to support the displayof a current debit balance on a prepaid payment mobile phone.

FIG. 3 is an expanded view of a merchant's system embodiment to supportthe display of the current debit balance on a prepaid payment mobilephone.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a mobile phone process embodiment configuredto calculate and store balance information after a payment transaction.

FIG. 5 illustrates a process embodiment sends a prepaid payment mobilephone balance information after a payment transaction.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a-mobile phone-writer process embodiment thatstores balance information.

FIG. 7 illustrates a process embodiment to display the current debitbalance of a prepaid payment mobile phone.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One aspect of the present invention includes the realization thatdisplaying a real-time balance on a prepaid payment mobile phone reducesthe cost of issuers supporting balance inquiry and balance returns frommobile phone customers. With the balance on a mobile phone displaysolution, mobile phone customers would be able to check their balance atany time, generating a higher volume of unplanned purchases, andpotentially a higher amount of re-loads at the point of sale.

Embodiments of the present invention include a mobile phone apparatus,system, method, and computer-readable medium configured to support thereal-time display of a debit balance on a prepaid payment mobile phone.Other embodiments of the present invention may include remote terminalsconfigured to support the real-time display of a debit balance on aprepaid payment mobile phone.

Turning to FIGS. 1A-B, these figures depict a prepayment mobile phone1000 configured to display of a balance on a real-time balance,constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. In this example, prepayment mobile phone 1000 isdepicted as a two-piece “flip” phone, but it is understood that theprinciples herein may be applied to any style mobile phone capable ofelectronic payment.

As shown in FIG. 1A, the payment mobile phone 1000 includes a housing1002, a display 1004, and an input 1006. It is understood that housing1002 may comprise one or more components. Some embodiments of housing1002 may be plastic or any other suitable material known in the art.

Display 1004 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), light-emitting-diode(LED), organic light-emitting-diode (OLED), surface-conductionelectron-emitter display (SED), digital light processing (DLP),interferometric modulator display (IMOD) or any other display known inthe art that can be used within the form factor required by the paymentmobile phone 1000.

Input 1006 may be any sensor or input device known in the art,including, but not limited to buttons 1006 a, trackballs 1006 b,scroll-wheels 1006 c, touch-pads or the like. In some embodiments, input1006 and display 1004 may be merged as a touch-screen input device.

Internal components of payment mobile phone 1000 are shown in FIG. 1B.Contained within housing 1002, a processor or central processing unit1008 is electrically coupled to the display 1004, input 1006,Read-Only-Memory (ROM) 1010, Random Access Memory (RAM) 1012, anon-volatile programmable memory 1014, input/output circuitry 1016, aninput/output port 1018, power supply 1020, cellular transceiver 1022,and radio-frequency transceiver 1024. It is understood by those familiarwith the art that some or all of these elements may be embedded togetherin some combination as an integrated circuit (IC).

Processor 1008 may be any central processing unit, microprocessor,micro-controller, computational device or circuit known in the art.

Read only memory 1010 is embedded with an operating system.

Non-volatile programmable memory 1014 is configured to be an applicationmemory device, and may store information such as the primary accountnumber and/or current debit balance information. Examples ofnon-volatile programmable memory 1014 include, but not limited to: amagnetic stripe, flash memory, Electrically Erasable ProgrammableRead-Only Memory (EEPROM), or any other non-volatile computer memory orstorage known in the art.

Random access memory 1012 is any temporary memory storage medium elementknown in the art. Random access memory is usually (but does not have tobe) volatile memory.

The processor 1008, the read only memory 1010, the random access memory1012 and the non-volatile programmable memory 1014 may coupled to oneanother through an internal bus system. Data can be interchanged betweenthe input/output unit 1016, the processor 1008 and the non-volatileprogrammable memory 1014. Furthermore, data can be interchanged betweenthe processor 1008 and the non-volatile programmable memory 1014.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the input/output circuitry 1016 isfurther coupled to an input/output port 1018 being formed in a surfacearea of the plastic housing 1002. Input/output port 1018 may be any datacommunications port known in the art, including, but not limited to: aserial port, a parallel port, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, anthe Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394(“firewire”) interface, or any port known in the art.

Cellular transceiver 1022 may be any cellular, personal communicationssystem (PCS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), GeneralPacket Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution (EDGE),Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division MultipleAccess (WCDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), OrthogonalFrequency-Division Multiplexing (ODFM), or any other wirelesscommunications protocol known in the art able to support voicecommunications.

Radio frequency transceiver 1024 may use any wireless data protocolknown in the art, such as: Bluetooth, Wireless Application Protocol(WAP), IEEE 802.11 (“WiFi”), IEEE 802.16 (“WiMax”), or any otherwireless data communications standard known in the art.

Power supply 1020 may be any electrical power supply, including abattery, fuel cell, long-term capacitor or any other power storage knownin the art. Power supply 1020 may be recharged by applying a directcurrent voltage.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system to support the display of a real-timeprepaid payment balance on a mobile phone, constructed and operative inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. A customer 2100receives a prepaid payment mobile phone 1000. In some instances themobile phone 1000 is purchased from an issuer 3400; in other instancesthe customer receives the mobile phone 1000 indirectly from the issuer3400, as a gift or as the result of a promotion. When the customer 1000uses the prepaid payment mobile phone 1000 at a merchant 2200 to pay fora product or service, the merchant 2200 contacts an acquirer 3000 (forexample, a commercial bank) to determine whether there is sufficientfunds on the mobile phone to pay for the transaction or a portion of thetransaction. The acquirer 2300 forwards the details of the paymenttransaction to a payment processor 2400 for processing. Paymentprocessor may be any payment network known in the art. An example of apayment network includes, but is not limited to: Visa™, MasterCard™,American Express™, Dinners Club™, or Discover™. In some instances, thepayment processor 2400 determines whether the transaction should beallowed; in other instances, the payment processor 2400 queries theissuer 3400 to determine whether the prepayment mobile phone has enoughfunds to allow the transaction.

FIG. 3 depicts merchant 2200 in greater detail, where merchant 2200includes a system to support the display of a real-time prepaid paymentbalance on a mobile phone, constructed and operative in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention. As shown, in FIG. 3, merchant2200 comprises a mobile phone point-of-sale read/writer 2210 thatcommunicated with a merchant central computer 2230 via the merchant'sprivate network 2220. In some embodiments, merchant central computer2230 may be coupled to hot list storage 2240.

Mobile phone point-of-sale read/writer 2210 is any device capable ofreading a personal account number off a prepaid payment mobile phone1000, and write balance information to the prepaid payment mobile phone1000.

Merchant central computer 2230 is a networked device capable ofcommunicating transaction data with mobile phone point-of-saleread/writer 2210 and transmitting the transaction data over network 4100to acquirer 2300.

Hot list storage 2240 may be any list, database, or memory structurecontaining either invalid or valid primary account numbers.

Operation of these prepayment mobile phone and system embodiments of thepresent invention may be illustrated by example.

We now turn our attention to method or process embodiments. It isunderstood by those known in the art that instructions for such methodembodiments may be stored on a non-volatile programmable memory 1014 andexecuted by a processor 1008.

FIG. 7 illustrates a process embodiment to display the current debitbalance of a prepaid payment mobile phone 1000, constructed andoperative in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.When a user wants to know the balance of prepaid payment mobile phone1000, the user requests the balance through pressing button 1006. Themobile phone receives the balance request, block 7002.

In mobile phone 1000 embodiments that utilize a personal identificationnumber (PIN), display 1004 prompts the user for the PIN number, block7004. The personal identification number may be stored in non-volatileprogrammable memory 1014. At this point, the user may enter a PIN numberusing buttons 1006 a.

In some embodiments, an error message is displayed when an invalid PINnumber is entered, block 7006, and flow returns to block 7004.

Upon receipt of a valid PIN number as determined at decision block 7006,the display shows the remaining prepaid balance, block 7008.

Turning to FIG. 4, a flow chart depicts a mobile phone-writer processembodiment configured to calculate and store balance information on aprepaid payment mobile phone after a payment transaction, constructedand operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

When a prepaid payment mobile phone 1000 is presented for payment at amerchant 2200, the primary account number and other data may be read ata mobile phone point-of-sale read/writer 2210, block 4002. The mobilephone 1000 may be presented in a variety of different methods, such astransmitting personal account data or via a contactless (“paywave”)radio-frequency presentation, as are known in the art.

The transaction amount is subtracted from the pre-paid balance on thephone, block 4004, and the new remaining balance is stored at block4006.

FIG. 5 illustrates a process embodiment in which the acquirer 2300,payment processor 2400 or issuer 2500 sends the prepaid payment phone1000 a Short Message Service (SMS) notification containing updatedbalance information, constructed and operative in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. In some embodiments the balanceinformation is subsequently stored on the prepaid payment mobile phone.As part of the payment transaction, primary account number and otherinformation is read by merchant 2200, block 5002. Prepaid payment mobilephone 1000 is received from a mobile phone point-of-sale read/writer2210, via the RF transceiver 1024, block 5002.

A payment card validation, as is known in the art, is performed usingthe data retrieved from the prepaid payment phone 1000. In someembodiments, merchant central computer 2230 consults with hot liststorage 2240 to determine whether the transaction may be validated. Inother embodiments, merchant central computer 2230 contacts. acquirer2300 to determine whether the transaction is valid. If the transactionis invalid as determined at decision block 5004, an error message isreturned at block 5006. When the transaction is valid, flow continues atblock 5008.

At block 5008, the payment transaction occurs.

Either after the payment transaction is completed, or during thetransaction, acquirer 2300, payment processor 2400 or issuer 2500 sendsthe prepaid payment, phone 1000 an SMS notification containing updatedbalance information. The SMS notification may be saved to the phone aseither an SMS notification, or as data for the phone's payment program.

FIG. 6 depicts a flow chart of a mobile phone-writer process 6000embodiment that stores new balance information on a prepaid paymentmobile phone 1000 after a transaction or fund reload, constructed andoperative in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.FIG. 6 assumes that the mobile phone reload is occurring at merchant2200 in communication with issuer 2500; it is understood that the reloadmobile phone may also occur at other locations. It is also understoodthat process 6000 may also be used during the activation of pre-paymentmobile phones 1000 when such mobile phones are initially purchased.

At first, prepaid payment mobile phone 1000 provides its transactiondata to a mobile phone point-of-sale read/writer 2210, block 6002. Suchtransaction data may include the primary account number or otheridentifier. The new balance of the prepaid mobile phone is sent to themobile phone 1000, block 6002. The amount of the new balance may bereceived as data from payment processor 2400, issuer 3400 or calculatedby the merchant 2200 using information received from issuer 3400 orpayment processor 2400. In mobile phone embodiments that use RF ID, thereceipt of the new balance may be accomplished via the RF transceiver1024. In other embodiments, the new balance may be received as a SMSnotification, or any other data transmission known in the art. The newbalance is written to non-volatile programmable storage media 1014,block 6006, and process 6000 ends.

The previous description of the embodiments is provided to enable anyperson skilled in the art to practice the invention. The variousmodifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may beapplied to other embodiments without the use of inventive faculty. Thus,the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodimentsshown herein, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with theprinciples and novel features disclosed herein.

1. A method of displaying a current balance on a prepaid payment mobilephone comprising: receiving a balance request from an input on theprepaid payment mobile phone; retrieving the current balance encoded ona non-volatile memory within the prepaid payment mobile phone;displaying the current balance on a display on the prepaid paymentmobile phone.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: promptingfor input of a personal identification number (PIN).
 3. The method ofclaim 2, further comprising: determining whether the personalidentification number is valid.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein thecurrent balance on the mobile phone is displayed only if the personalidentification number is determined to be valid.
 5. A prepaid paymentmobile phone comprising: a non-volatile programmable memory configuredto store a current balance associated with the prepaid payment mobilephone; an input device configured to receive a request for the currentbalance; a display configured to show the current balance when the inputdevice receives the request for the current balance.
 6. The prepaidpayment mobile phone of claim 5, wherein the display is furtherconfigured to prompt for input of a personal identification number(PIN).
 7. The prepaid payment mobile phone of claim 6, furthercomprising: a processor configured to determine whether the personalidentification number is valid.
 8. The prepaid payment mobile phone ofclaim 7, wherein the current balance on a mobile phone is displayed onlyif the personal identification number is determined to be valid.
 9. Amethod of encoding a current balance on a prepaid payment mobile phonecomprising: determining the current balance; encoding the currentbalance on a mobile phone on the prepaid payment mobile phone.
 10. Themethod of claim 9, wherein the current balance on a mobile phone isencoded on a non-volatile programmable memory in the prepaid paymentmobile phone.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the current balance onthe prepaid payment mobile phone is determined through subtracting atransaction amount from a previous balance.
 12. The method of claim 10,wherein the current balance on the prepaid payment mobile phone isdetermined by querying an acquirer, payment processor, or issuer. 13.The method of claim 10, wherein the current balance on the prepaidpayment mobile phone is received from an acquirer, payment processor, orissuer via a Short Message Service (SMS) message.
 14. Acomputer-readable medium, encoded with data and instructions, such thatwhen executed by a device, the instructions causes the device to:determine a current balance; encode the current balance on the prepaidpayment mobile phone.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the currentbalance is encoded on a non-volatile programmable memory in the prepaidpayment mobile phone.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the currentbalance is determined through subtracting a transaction amount from aprevious balance.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the currentbalance is determined through querying an acquirer, payment processor,or issuer.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein the current balance isreceived from an acquirer, payment processor, or issuer via a ShortMessage Service (SMS) message.
 19. The prepaid payment mobile phone ofclaim 8, further comprising: a processor configured to determine thecurrent balance.
 20. The prepaid payment mobile phone of claim 19,wherein the current balance is determined through subtracting atransaction amount from a previous balance.